Karaoke Forums

Bob still sticking to his stupid database design that locks a song's history to it's physical location.
Move or delete a song and all history of the song ever being sung disappear.
All the reporting features in the program are worthless if you can't trust the data.

This fact alone is enough for me to still recommend staying with v2014.9.1

On the plus side . . . Karaoke.net songs are now included in ICroons for easy lookup

I use an even older version, but for other reasons. Good advice dsm

I installed the demo ,of the new version, on two of my machines, and I can't get the damn thing to start. The icon is useless, on both the desktop and the folder.

As for the history issue, Bob has made it clear that he refuses to ever fix it. If you move your files for any reason, including hard drive failure, you an idiot!! That is how Bob looks at it. It's a shame.

There are still things that need to be fixed. Sometimes, when I go to remove a new singer from rotation I get an exception.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

It is a shame but there is a way around this (hypothetically speaking since I don't have the program) and that has to do with the drive you're using to store the files on in the first place.

I can only assume that most use either a secondary drive (drive E: if D: is a cd rom drive) or they are using an external drive. If it's either E: or something other than C: then keep a backup of this drive copying only the changed files on a weekly or monthly basis to an external hard drive.

(And we will call this drive, Drive K:)

If the drive with your files on it (drive E:) craps out for any reason,
(1) disable it (and remove it completely) and
(2) plug in drive K:
(3) go to the windows drive management utility and tell it to REASSIGN drive K: to E:

Your program should work just fine with the slight glitch of not having 1 week (or month) of singer history.

Karma will only work if you uninstall the old, reinstall the new version, then reboot. Worked for me with no problem.

From karaosoft facebook page: “For any Karma users who had problems getting yesterday's update to run, please uninstall and download a fresh copy from our web site as we've updated the installation script to fix this issue”.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

How is it broken? I don't find leaving my files alone that difficult to do. If I get a new drive, I just put them back in the same path. If I need to correct a file name, I can now do it right from Karma. Where is the problem? I have to leave the gasoline in my car's gas tank or it won't run, and you don't see me on an automotive forum complaining because I can't move my gas from the tank to the trunk.

If you change the name of a file or it's path, how is the program to know it's the same file that had previous history? If you're going to complain that something needs to be fixed, you have to first explain how it's broken in the first place AND also show how it could be changed to be better. You've done neither.

So when someone asks you why you're using such an old version, do you seriously look them in the eye and say "it's because I don't understand how to leave something alone"? Really? and you're ok with that?

I use an even older version than that. Why because it has NEVER let me down for many years now. All of the added features have been none that I have requested. My singers are delighted with having provided them with a guaranteed perfect show every time. That is good enough for me.

That's a legitimate reason. At least you have a logical answer.

I like to use the latest versions of all software. As for the history issue, I run two folders. I run my main karaoke folder, which never moves. Then I have my New Karaoke folder. That is for all the songs I get from KV, SBI, ZM, Karaoke.net, or any other supplier. I keep them in that folder until I get to a certain amount, say 100 songs.Then I add them to my books, and move them into the main Karaoke folder. Poof, history for those song is gone. PCDJ remedied this by showing the lost files in RED, this way you just point to it, and locate the file, and the history was fixed. Unfortunately, the rest of the program sucked.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I've explained the problems and the solution in many other posts.
1) The fact that a song has been moved or deleted does not change the fact that the song has been sung in x venues by y singers.
An independent (History) table should log each and every song(Karaoke AND Fill music) that is played in a show. Singer history and show history are NOT the same.

Because, for example, I've embarked on a project of renaming files to indicate 'duet', 'solo' 'group' and other designations. A couple thousand or more filename changes. God forbid we want to do maintenance on our files to make them better for us AND the singers.

It's such a simple solution to create a separate table and query to store the history, regardless of the location of the file. Now, the history is there. Period. If the file is changed or deleted in singer's history, simply asterisk the file or change its color. But no. That's idiotic.

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DJ Don

Even if it causes you grief? Why might I ask? Latest is not always the greatest.

Well, if it gives me grief, than no, I will revert back. Karma has been pretty good to me. Just the history thing annoys me, and so does Bob's attitude. It is a real shame that the guy that made the program couldn't be a nicer, more accommodating person.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I'm with mmarog on this one: it ain't broke, don't fix it and you really don't need to upgrade it to the latest version either..

How much more do you want your software to do? I don't run a singer history -- because I choose not to -- I want patrons trying NEW or DIFFERENT songs.. not the same song week-after-week and month-after-month.

There's a guy here in detroit that sings "Easy" by the commodores... and he's done that song for the last 15 years. Don't get me wrong, he's (by now) very good at it... but it's just stupid to sing the same song, or same 5 songs, until you die.

Even at place with a clientele similar to mmarog's, and older do-woppy, classic-singing group, this encourages them to try something new... and they do. It might still be an old, do-woppy kind of song, but at least it's something different.

I'm pretty nerdy, but I'm not about to be on the "bleeding edge" of technology for no good reason. Especially with a loose cannon vendor like Bob who'll shut you off if he's just in the mood.

I think I am running Karma 2013.01.19. on my show computer. Who else can say that they have never had any kind of a problem with Karma for over 3 years. No reboots, no files not found, no white outs, no lock ups?

I will guarantee you that you can't run a tighter more efficient show than me. I am sure that there are those that can equal my efficiency, but beat it.... I don't think so. On top of that I have up until recently played customer's cd's too.

Even the shortest of interruptions is too much in my book. I try way beyond the norm to keep my show ultra smooth, and my followers know it and appreciate it. If I used the latest Karma release every time it was released I am very sure I would not be saying these words.

I don't have lock ups or white screens or anything like that. I will get an exception once in a while, when I go to remove a new singer from rotation, after they leave. I just hit continue, and all is well. They next time they come in, no more exception.

Hey, no offense, but I am not into calling my singers "followers". Makes you sound like some religious cult leader.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I use the singer history feature specifically to encourage singers to broaden their horizons.

When someone comes to me and says "let me sing something from my list", I look at the songs they have not performed in a long time. If they settle on something they have performed in the last 30 days, I encourage them to try something new. Or I will proactively suggest a song based on what they have performed in the past.

The singer history is just another tool that we can leverage.

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-Chris

I use the singer's history in the same way you do Chris. Many times a singer will ask me to just choose something for them, and I will grab something that they have not sung in a long time.

Get a copy of Microsoft Access and open the Karma database. The history is in a separate table. Even before, when Karma used XML files, it was in separate XML files (which are tables). That's just a given that it has to be in a separate table. Before the 2015 version, if you renamed a file, it still wouldn't play it from history because it couldn't find it. The only difference now is that when you update the database and it can't find the original file, it's record is deleted. Personally, I'd rather not have records in my history that don't work. They're like useless garbage. That being said, how is your solution any easier? One way or another, you're going to be told that it can't play the file. It doesn't matter if it's highlighted in a different color or just not there. Either way, you still need to re-lookup the song for the singer. It's actually better now because of the relational database. It's what enables you to edit the file name in Karma and then have it automatically update all the related history records so instantly. It's also what enables accurate reports. If it left lingering records of old file names, it would completely make the reports inaccurate. Sure, Bob could write even more extra code to have it scan for every file before running reports, but that would be ridiculous, and the people who CAN follow the rules should not be penalized for the bad habits of those who can't. Personally, I'm glad Bob sticks to his guns. If he listened to you guys, we'd still have a program that used XML files for data storage and he would be spending his time writing code to compensate for all of your mistakes and bad habits.

Speaking of bad habits, let's not forget the fact that Karma's help file has, as far back as I can remember, informed us that renaming files outside of the program was NOT recommended, so it's not like you can claim that you were caught off guard (even though you are). You didn't follow the rules, and now you want the manufacturer to compensate for your inability to read? Really? If you step on the gas pedal instead of the brake, you can't sue the auto maker (or even have the right to complain) when you crash into a tree just because YOU thought it should be setup differently.

I run the latest version of Karma and my shows are silky smooth and efficient. But more importantly, they're entertaining. I play bumper music that is absolutely part of the entertainment. Never dead air. Is the next singer ready to jump in the grave of the previous singer at the last note? Not always, but it doesn't affect the entertainment value of my show. I still get as many singers in as I possibly can.

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DJ Don